Fly Away Home
by Jynxed by love
Summary: Twists of fate can be cruel.  Rated  T for language.
1. Chapter 1: Appearance

Chapter 1: Appearance

Kasumi Yamamoto was an orphan. She'd been an orphan for as long as she could remember. From what she'd heard, her parents had died in a fire.

She didn't believe that.

She didn't even think that anybody knew who her parents were.

All she was sure they knew was that she was born in America. She was sure, because she could speak fluent English. She also somehow had a plane ticket from New York.

Somehow, she had ended up in an airplane flying to Japan. She didn't know how, didn't know why, just knew that she ended up in Japan and grew up there. She barely remembered her hometown, New York City, barely remembered anybody she had known there. She didn't remember anything related to the plane flight.

Kasumi just knew that she got kicked into Tokyo with barely a possession except for her mother's wedding ring. She didn't remember anything about that, either.

After wandering around for a week, she decided that she needed to find a place to stay. It didn't matter where, just a place.

She found that place under an out-of-the-way alley. If there was anything she enjoyed doing, it was inventing. She invented a way to dig under the street without damaging anything, and formed that hole into a home. She found a mattress in a dumpster, probably dumped out by a rich, spoiled kid. It was old, hard, and springy, but it was a mattress.

Eventually, her hideout flourished. She dragged bits and pieces of everything in, building things, selling things.

If there was anything she liked more than inventing, it was mysteries.

She scavenged the streets, picking up books, mainly mystery books. By listening to people, she quickly picked up on Japanese, learning to speak and write it as if she was born there. She didn't dare get close to anybody, fearing that a friendship with her was no more than a curse.

Every day her silent footsteps could be heard as she sold her creations, her drawings, her paintings. Every day her life stayed the same: wake up, change into other set of clothes, take the clothes she wore yesterday and wash them, and drag all of her inventions and possessions out for sale.

Things stayed the same, stayed boring, until, after six years of the same things, she decided to take a walk during the night.

Her feet this time wrapped up in boots she had found, the ten-year-old Kasumi accidentally walked farther from her home than she intended. She froze when she saw a group of older men standing in front of her, obviously drunk.

"Heh heh… look at the cute lil' guuuurl~" one of them slurred, stumbling towards her.

She calmly took a step back, keeping her hands in her tattered coat's pockets.

"C'mere," another one said with a grin. "We won't do… much to you."

Her crystal blue eyes took one look at their glazed, lust-filled ones, and she turned and ran, her dirty blonde hair flying out behind her.

"Hey, get back!" the third man called. "After 'er," one grunted. And the three men trudged at a surprisingly quick pace after her.

She darted around corners, too terrified to even think where she was going. "My god… where am I? Where's home? Why me? God, why me?"

Finally she paused, panting, in a street. Her eyes darted all around as she said to herself, "Okay, this is a dream. All a dream. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and hit your head against something, and you'll wake up."

A few seconds later, she was reeling around the alley, holding her throbbing head.

"There's a 100% chance that this isn't a dream."

Kasumi blinked, turning her frightened blue eyes to a teenage boy who seemed around 17 standing a few feet away. His hands were shoved into a pair of baggy jean's pockets, and his eyes had deep shadows under them. He was hunched over, wearing a plain white shirt, and his hair was extremely messy. Bare feet poked out of under his jeans. "Wh-who're you…?" Kasumi asked hesitantly, taking her hands away from her head.

"L. And you're the girl that smashed her head off of a wall."

Embarrassed, she bit the inside of her lip for a moment before responding, "L isn't your real name."

"What? Maybe it is."

"It isn't." She looked confidently up at him, one of her hands gripping the other hand's thumb. "It's an alias."

L frowned, his panda-like eyes looking at the alley behind her, from where shouts were coming. "Believe what you want. And who're you?"

Kasumi jumped at a man's voice yelling, "She has to be in there!" "I'm not telling you until you tell me your real name, but we need to get out of here NOW," she growled, darting forward and taking his hand, tugging him after her.

L looked surprised as she ran forward, oblivious to the stinging cold. Her long, straight, layered blonde hair occasionally whipped him in the face until they got to a wall. "Hold on a sec." She disappeared, leaving the boy standing alone.

L sighed, leaning back against the wall and staring up at the sky. In no time, she was back, dragging something along with her. She threw a rope over the wall. That was quickly followed by a dragging sound. "C'mon. Climb over." She offered him her warmest smile, tossing the other end of the rope to him.

The boy caught it uneasily. "Are you sure?"

"100% sure."

He sighed. "Fine." He tightly gripped the rope and was about to pull himself up it when something on the other side flung him across. He landed, wide-eyed, on the other side, safe and sound.

A voice called across the wall, "Now could you fling the rope over to me? That'd be helpful."

L stared at the contraption for a moment, then heard Kasumi scream and the laughter of the men. He quickly tossed the rope over, and she came sailing across, although she wrenched the contraption from the wall as she flew, breaking it. She tumbled to earth, about to break herself against it, but L ran forward and caught her.

She slowly opened her eyes, looking quietly at him. "… am I dead? I'm too young to die."

"You're not dead." He put her down.

"Oh." She dusted herself off, then smiled at L. "Thanks."

"Will you tell me your name now?"

She stubbornly shook her head, frowning.

L sighed, hesitating before saying, "… I'm Lawliet."

Kasumi grinned. "It's nice to meet you, Lawliet. I'm Kasumi."

"Do you have a last name?"

She frowned. "I do… but I don't."

Lawliet blinked, looking at her. "… you mean you don't know it."

The girl looked startled at his accurate conjecture. "Y-yeah… but I call myself Yamamoto."

"Hm." The teenager looked at her. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"I'm from under an alley in Tokyo," she snapped, her temper flaring up.

"But before that?"

She froze and stopped walking, staring at her worn-out boots. "… America. New York City."

"And I'm from Winchester, Britain."

She blinked, looking at him. "You speak English?" she asked, slipping easily into said language.

He nodded a little.

"I'm out of practice," Kasumi continued with a smile. "I've been here since I was four, y'know. Six years ago."

"You have parents?"

The ten-year-old looked sharply at him. "Everybody HAS parents."

"They alive?"

She blinked before whispering, "I like to believe that they are…" A tear appeared at the corner of her eye, threatening to spill past her long eyelashes.

Suddenly L's arms were wrapped around her. "Don't cry." After he was sure that she wouldn't, he stepped back and awkwardly pressed his thumb to his mouth. "That rope… thing. Did you make it."

She nodded, still sobered by the thought of her parents. "Then how'd you like to meet my guardian?" L asked.

Kasumi blinked. "Guardian?"

Lawliet nodded. "He'd be happy to meet you."

"Your… dad?"

"No."

"Uncle?"

L shook his head.

"Grandfather?"

"Nope."

"… relation?"

Again, L shook his head.

Kasumi blinked before choking out, "You, too?"

A slight nod.

"Oh…" Her gaze returned to her boots. Her left toe was sticking out of it.

He followed her gaze briefly before turning around and walking off. "You coming or not?"

"Oh, yeah! Wait!" She trotted after him.

*****_*****

Later that day, Kasumi met L's guardian, Quillish Wammy. She found him very nice and kind, and immediately latched onto him, despite a previous misunderstanding of her thinking his last name "Grammy." She spent a while with them, before asking to go home.

Quillish looked at her. "And where is this… home?"

"… Tokyo."

"How would you like to come to Winchester with us?"

Her eyes grew wide. "R-really?"

Quillish's face crinkled even more as he smiled. "Yes, really."

Blue eyes lit up as she grinned. "I'd love it!"

"Good." The old man stood up. "L and I are leaving in a day and a half... is there anything we can get for you?"

Kasumi shook her head, showing him her mother's marriage ring. "This is all I really have."

L briefly looked up from where he was sitting in a seat in his hunched-over way, all of his weight concentrated on the balls of his feet. His owl-like eyes stared at the ring for a moment before returning to the sweets in front of him.

"Then is it okay with you if we keep you with us for the next few days before our departure?"

Kasumi turned her attention from L's spiky black hair to Quillish again. "Oh, yes. I haven't a problem with that."

"Good, good." Quillish smiled again. "Would you like us to get you anything before we go...?"

Kasumi bit the inside of her lip, hesitating. She really did want to get something, but she didn't want to impose on their generosity.

"She wants to." Kasumi jumped at Lawliet's voice. He was calmly looking up at his caretaker.

"It's absolutely fine, Kasumi. You are going to be staying with us, so don't be shy if you want to ask us something. Now, I must go take care of some business. I'll be right out." He patted Kasumi on the head as he walked out. "Then I'll take you to buy things."

"Arigatou," Kasumi thanked, in Japanese out of habit. After he left, she turned her attention back to L. "Why do you sit like that?"

Lawliet blinked. "If I sit any other way, my skills drop by 40%."

She giggled, walking over and sitting down on the floor by his chair. "You like percentages, don't you?"

He frowned. "And you like pointing out the obvious. And curling up instead of sitting like other people do."

Kasumi blinked, looking up from where she was curled up by his chair. "… it's comfy like this," she muttered, looking at her feet, a slightly injured look creeping across her face.

L felt a twinge of guilt and reached down to gently pat her head. "Don't make that face."

She looked cross-eyed up at him. "This better?"

A rare smile flitted across L's face, disappearing a second after Quillish walked back in. His caretaker noticed, though, flashing the teenager a knowing glance. "Come on, Kasumi."

"Right!" Kasumi scrambled up, running over to the older man.

"Kasumi, how old are you again?"

"Uhh… ten. Why?"

"No reason." Quillish frowned. "You don't act ten."

Kasumi smiled, contented with that response.


	2. Chapter 2: Broken

Chapter 2: Broken

Kasumi settled in quickly at Quillish's orphanage: the Wammy House. She immediately bolted to her room, circling it quickly before putting her things down.

The next room she found was the piano room. She stared at the piano for a moment before tentatively opening it.

"You play?"

L was standing in the doorway. She nodded. "Then play." She played.

The minor chords flew from the piano, taking over the whole house, everybody's mind and soul. The music dipped under her fingers, spiraling upward, then plummeting, creating a whole show for the children of the orphanage.

The end was greeted with applause. She blushed, looking down. "It wasn't even that good…" she muttered.

The rest of her time in the Wammy house was spent either by that piano, in her room, or following L. She immediately attached herself to him, learning from him, doing what he did, although his quietness encouraged her will to talk.

As she got older, she got quieter, more serious, and sadder. She also developed a love of everything cold, and hated summers. Her birthday, the 27th of September, was the beginning of Fall, although she always called it the end of Summer, a time to look forward to colder times.

Finally, her thirteenth birthday…

"Kasumi-chan?" L knocked lightly on her door.

No response.

He took a deep breath and opened the door. A flash of white and purple greeted him: the room's theme. In the corner, a purple comforter moved slightly as Kashmi rolled around in her bed.

L quietly crossed the room, his bare feet crunching gently against the white, clean carpet. Kasumi had stays up almost u til midnight, excited about the end of summer until she suddenly fell asleep. She was still sleeping peacefully, the tiny light of the barely risen sun shining through the window and playing across her face. Lawliet stopped at her bed, messing with the present he had behind his back.

He was surprised when he saw a tear clinging to her long eyelashes. He hesitated for a moment before gently brushing it away.

She didn't wake up.

Barely knowing what he was doing, the teenager leaned over her until his mouth was an inch away from hers.

He caught himself, panda-like eyes widening. _What am I doing?_ he thought, drawing back. A slight blush crossed his face as he retreated to the office chair in the room.

It seemed like barely a minute had passed when a hushed voice said, "Lawliet?"

He turned around, meeting her sleepy blue eyes. "Hm. You're awake. And I'd prefer if you call me L- for safety reasons."

She nodded to acknowledge his second statement. "I wish I wasn't awake." She yawned and sat up, curling up around a stuffed rabbit like she'd always done.

"Yeah. Uh… happy birthday." He walked to her bed and handed her the present.

She flashed him a thank-you smile, then opened the box.

She pulled out a necklace with a large peridot gem with the Libra sign carved into it hanging off of it. Her eyes brightened, a fresh smile breaking out across her face. "Th-thank you… it's beautiful!"

L awkwardly rubbed his foot against his leg. "It's nothing…"

Kasumi quickly put the necklace on before looking back up at L. "Oh, but it's everything! There. It's on, and I'm never gonna take it off!"

He blinked. "Never?"

"Not for a second!" She jumped out of bed. The silly girl had fallen asleep in her jeans and sweatshirt- her sense of style was strikingly different from the Japanese teens' skirts. "C'mon, let's go do something." She grabbed his hand and started out the door.

L felt a faint flush break out across his pale face at her touch. _Why do I feel like this? _he thought. "You don't have shoes on," he said instead.

"You never have shoes on."

L ignored his companion's retort. "You'll get sick."

"I don't care! C'mon."

Once their feet met Wammy's house's lawn, Kasumi dropped Lawliet's hand and walked slowly ahead. He slouched over to her. "Sunrise like the sunrise in Tokyo?"

"It was never as beautiful," she whispered, captivated by the colors.

He reached over to pat her head, the same way Quillish had when they met. Kasumi flinched away, as she always did. L frowned. "They hit you, didn't they?"

"Who hit me?" Kasumi's voice was obviously quivering.

"Your customers."

Kasumi kept her gaze fixed on the sunrise, refusing to look at L. He cupped her face with his hands, forcing her to look at him. Tears were pooling in the corners of her crystal blue eyes. "They beat you. They beat you when you didn't give them what they wanted."

"I can't lie to you, can I?" Kasumi choked out, the tears leaking out and gently gliding into L's hands. "Yes… dammit, yes, they did."

The cold hands left her face, the arms wrapped themselves around her. Her hands weakly gripped her friend's shirt. They stood like that, embracing like they had on that cold winter day three years before.

Kasumi felt warm and happy... happier than she had ever felt before. She felt as if she wanted to spend the rest of her life there, in L's embrace. She felt as if she didn't want to move... didn't even want death to pull them apart. _Why... why am I thinking like this?_

Suddenly L drew away, causing a pang of… sadness? to rise up in Kasumi. "I'll make them pay." L was quietly fuming as he said that.

Kasumi blinked. She had never seen him that mad. "L… don't. Please…"

"They hurt you! Nobody should be allowed to do that!" He turned around, about to storm back into the house.

Kasumi caught his arm. "L, don't! Please!"

"And why shouldn't I punish them?"

"They… they were my life." She hung her head in shame, her grip on his arm slackening. "That's how I got food… how I managed to stay alive."

L's arm stopped tugging at her hand, stopped asking to be let free. "… fine." He gently pried her fingers off of his arm and slunk back inside.

****

Kasumi finished the piece, jumping as L said, "You always play that same song."

She nodded. "You see… I used to have a cat. A little cream point ragdoll cat, I named her Mitzi." She smiled to herself. "I had just read A Murder is Announced- you know, by Agatha Christie? I found that, then the cat. I don't know how old Mitzi was." Kasumi then frowned. "I had Mitzi for about a year and a half… one day I was out longer because of… customers. On my way back, I found this piece. Just this movement. Don't even know who wrote it. I'd had a piano in my hideout. A horrible one, but I'd taught myself to play. When I got back… Mitzi was half-dead. She had gotten out, been mauled by… a dog, I'm guessing, and dragged herself back. She died then… and this piece always reminds me of her."

Lawliet sat quietly through the whole story, looking thoughtfully at the piece for a second before getting up and leaving. Kasumi sighed. She was used to things like this.

She stayed in the piano room, occasionally looking out the window. Her heart rose when she saw L slouching across the lawn. She flew down to greet him. "L-kun! Where've you been? Oh… hi, Wammy-sama."

Quillish smiled. "L decided that we get this for your birthday." He handed Kasumi a bag.

She frowned, pulling a stuffed cat out of it. It looked exactly like Mitzi had. Her eyes shone, and she looked gratefully at L. He just shifted awkwardly and said, "Thank Wammy-sama."

Kasumi smiled her usual upbeat smile, thanking both of them profusely and clutching the cat tightly. She waited until her caretaker left until leaning up and gently kissing L on the cheek and thanking him again, before proposing that they go somewhere.

They wandered through the fields, L quietly eating a sucker. "L-kun?"

"Hm?" He looked at her.

"Age differences don't mean anything, right?"

L took the lollipop out of his mouth. "Mean anything to what?"

Kasumi looked at him. "Friendship. Anything." The slight blush on her face showed that she meant more of anything than friendship.

L pretended not to notice. "Mental age matters."

"A-and… what would you say my mental age is?" She sounded as if she was afraid to ask.

He looked quietly into her clear, blue eyes. "... 17."

"Ah." She obviously relaxed.

"Back when we were running away from those men... when you broke the rope... how did you break it so easily?"

Kasumi shrugged. "People have told me that I'm good at finding weak... soft spots in things."

"And who are those people?"

Kasumi stopped walking for a moment. "... me. There wasn't exactly anybody else to compliment me, was there?"

The corners of L's mouth twitched up into a smile for a moment before he stuck the lollipop back into his mouth.

*****

Later that day, Kasumi sat in front of a fire. It had started raining, which turned to sleet. She had retreated to the fire, and had spent the previous fifteen minutes staring into the fire.

L was sitting in a chair behind her, eating a slice of cake. "… Kasumi-chan, are you alright?"

She jumped. What does she see in those flames? L wondered. "Oh, I'm fine." She shifted. "Why?"

"I just don't want you to be sad on your birthday." He returned to his cake, freezing when Kasumi suddenly jumped up and stormed around.

"You don't want me to be sad? You don't want me to be sad. Fucking hypocrite."

"Watch your mouth," L calmly replied, not looking up.

"Since my third birthday, every five years something's gotten hurt. LISTEN TO ME!" L jumped, turning his dark grey eyes from the cake to a raging Kasumi in front of the fire. The stuffed Mitzi lay forgotten on a sofa. "Third birthday- somebody shoved me down stairs, broke both of my legs. I couldn't walk for weeks. Eighth birthday, this happened." She pulled back her sleeve, showing a scar wrapping around her arm. "Somebody beat me for the first time. I still ripped them off-I wanted cake and milk for Mitzi." An almost maniac grin spread across her face. "It showed me how twisted and biased people are, myself included. I cheated people for my own good, they beat me for their own hood. I thought that the whole world was evil… until you."

A silence pressed down on the two for a few seconds before Kasumi quietly continued, "You and Wammy-sama were the nicest people I've ever known. And it mattered. Until today… you'd be willing to punish people who did nothing!"

"They hurt you!"

"They _helped_ me! See, I'm more at fault than they are." She straightened up from where she had been leaning over the table, the grin replaced by a frown. "All because of the crap this world is." She whirled around and left the room.

"Wait, Kasumi-chan!" L stood up and went after her, cake forgotten.

Dismay crossed his face when he saw the door open. He took a deep breath and stepped into the storm. "Kasumi!"

"You call your opinion _justice_?" a receding figure yelled. "Some world that'd be, with your 'justice'!"

"Fine! Believe what you want!"

"That I'll do. I'm leaving, and don't expect to see me again!" The figure disappeared into the trees.

"Oh." Quillish was standing behind L. "It's useless to look for her... you know how good she is at hiding."

"I don't care. I need to find her." L walked out, going into the forest where she disappeared.

Quillish sighed as he turned around, walking to the room where Kasumi last was. He gently picked up Mitzi. "Kasumi... why must you be so stubborn?" 

End Prologue


End file.
